Fishing is fun and sometimes easy if the fish are biting. The difficult thing for novices and experienced fishermen and women is to properly set the hook. At the moment a fish takes the bait, the fish is most vulnerable to being hooked. Unfortunately, inexperience and inattention often leave the hook empty and the fish fed with the bait.
The prior art includes many inventions directed to the improvement of the chances for people to catch fish. The Applicant is aware of a prior art invention for an “Automated Fishhook Tackle System” as described and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,105,299 (the “Rich” patent). The Rich patent uses a spring loaded plunger with a notch in the side and a hook attached to one end. The plunger with the hook end must be pulled until the notch in the plunger latches. An obvious difficulty with the Rich device is that it requires the user to grasp the plunger on the end where the line with a hook is tied. A further difficulty is that the device is prone to self activate when the plunger contacts something like the bottom of the fishing place or while being cast, for example, even before a fish takes the bait.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an automatic fish hook setting apparatus and method that is easy and safe to use, that may be remotely operated to ready the device for use and that is resistant to operation when cast or when coming in contact with another object such as the bottom of the place being fished. It, therefore, is an object of this invention to provide an automatic fish hook setting apparatus that may be easily and safely used by novices and experienced fishermen and women alike, that is remotely operable so that the user does not have to be concerned with hooking themselves when arming the device and that is resistant to self actuation when being cast and when coming in contact with the bottom.